Chapter 385: The Living Nightmare
Avilia made her request, and her gaze narrowed down even further towards the even more jittery, kneeling Rupert.
"Why certainly your highness! It would be my greatest honour to explain absolutely everything..."
He took an extensive gulp followed by a deep breath before continuing.
"After your sacrifice, the war was ended, and both sides were forced to retreat back to where they came. But, as you would assume, the aftermath of the war and your sacrifice caused a far worse, lasting effect on our kind than that of the much more organized angels."
"Zerker took command after your death as he tried to quell the masses' outrage but it didn't work out too well, so he was forced to sign a treaty to allow him more time to bring demon kind together. But, that only instilled even more outrage in—"
"There is no need to explain that…" Avilia waved. "Alucard, the vampire lord under Shadar had already explained all of that to me. How society began to devolve back into its barbaric roots after I've left and how Zerker had to take arms against them to keep the people under his thumb. What I need to know is what happened after that… On the day of the attack… And what exactly happened to the book of resurrection and my necklace…"
"U-understood! Apologies my lord!" Rupert shook and nodded vigorously to Avilia's words as he began to recount what truly mattered in her ears.
"On the day of the attack, it seemed like any other day… I woke up and immediately went to do my job in the painting room where I was ordered to draw your majesty for a grand painting for a celebration Zerker had planned to help unite the people. It really was a masterpiece beyond anything I had ever done in my life. And after a decade of work on it, it was finally over…"
"But that was when the sky shattered, like a massive rumbling that shook the very realm itself… Even I could barely stand in its wake, and the castle began to vigorously shake as if it were hit by 100 earthquakes. The painting that I had worked so hard on had collapsed on the floor, and your beauty was absolutely ruined."
"At first, I assumed that it was one of those old leaders who attacked the castle in protest and retaliation for the celebration Zerker had planned. However, that was far from the truth."
"When the ground stood still again, I left the room in outrage. But that outrage was then replaced with concern. Screams… No, they were more like shrieks that echoed throughout the castle hallways, ones that bore a great amount of pain."
"A message was immediately sent to everyone within the castle that we were under attack by masked figures of all sizes raiding not only the castle but the entire capital for as far as the eye could see…"
"The anger in my eyes was immediately replaced with panic. The cries across the hallways were slowly approaching me. I'm weak… I'm no fighter, and I knew I would stand no chance as the simple castle painter. So I did what I thought was best… I ran away as far as I could to the other side as to not get in the way."
"As I did so, I witnessed brave soldiers and protectors of the castle rush ahead past me with no fear in their eyes. However, the screams of pain that soon followed their advances proved to me that they were no match, and only made me run even faster."
"However, I could only do so much running before suddenly, I run out of room to go, and the only way out was to either head into the forbidden ground or to break open through the walls."
"And of course, I initially chose the latter."
"With all my might, I punched a hole through the tough castle walls, and there I saw a sight that I would never in my life forget, soldered and branded into my mind until my death."
"The previous calm, relatively empty streets were run rampant, like an ocean of unknown masked beings flooded the entire city. The sky was shattered like glass, and those very same beings fell down from it like pouring rain."
"However, there was retaliation. In the sky were several demons fighting off the menace, many I recognized as Elite guards and even some of the sins such as Lust, Envy, and even Zerker, Wrath himself. But despite their aid, they could not kill faster than these entities who mowed down civilians like nothing."
"The energy oozing out from underneath could be only described as a foul abomination that made my very being crawl and gag beyond repair. The faces of the unmasked gremlins were abhorrent. Their skin was of all sizes, a mixture of different pigments, horns growing out of every pore in their bodies like pimples, that along with feathery wings and a golden glow. Some even lacked simple functions such as eyes, ears, and mouths, having horns replaced by them instead. They seemed like primitive beings, in pain every second they breathed who only had destruction in their minds."
"From above I watched in horror. It was doomsday, like the end of the nether realm as I knew it. The outside world beyond the castle I had tried to escape to was far more unsafe than the very walls."
"So, I attempted to go the only way I could to survive… Into the forbidden ground where both your necklace and the book of resurrection laid in top security."
"The only problem was, despite everything that was happening, the area was still heavily guarded at that moment. If anything, the number of guards in the area multiplied to protect. I began to lose hope of survival, the rumbling and screaming across the hallway was increasing and I had nowhere left to escape. But, before "I attempted to rush into certain death against the castle guards, two figures hooded in black dash directly past me as if I were not even there. And the next time I had blinked, I found the five guards guarding the edge of the forbidden ground on the floor, unconscious but certainly not dead."
"I couldn't believe my eyes and didn't know what the hell happened. All I knew was that it was my opportunity to flee, and so I took it..."
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